Madagascar
by Black-Waltz
Summary: The gang is in for a wild adventure after Lucy's attempt to leave the zoo winds up getting them all stuck on the island of Madagascar. Can they survive long enough to attempt to get home? A Fairy Tail fic with the story of the movie Madagascar. In Progress and may have some small edits here and there.
1. The Daydream

**This here is my attempt of acting out the movie 'Madagascar' with the characters of Fairy Tail. I've already decided who shall fit into** **what role and will proceed as I find the time too. I don't own Madagascar or Fairy Tail but I do believe I have the right to combine them into this parody fanfic. Read and do tell me what you think afterward if you would be willing to do so. Thanks for taking your time to read this fanfic.**

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The sky is painted orange by the rising sun that shines over a green meadow with a wall of palm trees on both sides, creating a very nice view as the air is filled with the singing of a choir. Swinging past the view on a very long vine is a young woman giving off a excited cry as she does so.

The swinger in question was Lucy, a girl with blonde hair and brown eyes wearing a bodysuit with long sleeves and long legs that was black and white striped, leaving her hands, feet, and head free. Along with some long ears on her head and a tail coming from her back she was easily recognized as a zebra by anyone that saw her.

She lets go of the vine and falls gracefully behind a choir of singing penguins that scatter and fly away as she runs past them on bare feet, running over the healthy green grass and heading right for a large chasm in front of her. As she reaches the edge she releases a powerful jump that allows her to cross the chasm with ease, doing spins and rolls in the air as she lands gracefully once more on the other side before continuing her run, the sound of the choir still going.

As she runs with a smile on her face she doesn't notice a young man appearing from a bush she just passed by. This was Natsu, a young man with pink spiky hair that grew around his head like a lion's mane and had black eyes eying Lucy with his own grin as he rubbed his hands together. He was dress in brown pants that had a tail coming out of the back and a brown scarf while also having some short ears on his head, being recognized as a lion with no trouble.

In the distance there is a large, clear lake in view which Lucy is running toward while Natsu following her, tiptoeing to keep himself unnoticed while also catching up with Lucy's sprint. He moves in closer and closer getting to where there was only inches between the two. Lucy however is too focused on the lake in front of her to notice the danger behind her and doesn't expect what happens next.

Natsu suddenly pops up in front of her with arms raised. "Surprise!" he shouts.

"Aaaahhhhhh!" was Lucy response as she screams from getting surprised, tripping on the treadmill she was running on which then throws her off and sends her rolling backward till she crashes into the edge of her pen. In reality both of them were in the Grand Central Zoo in the City of New York as animals on display. Lucy rubs her head and grumbles a bit as she stands up, glaring at Natsu as she walks back to her treadmill which the said lion was in front of.

"Natsu! I've told you many times not to interrupt me when I'm daydreaming! When a zebras in the zone, you leave her alone remember?" she steps back onto her treadmill and points past Natsu toward a mural on the wall that depicted the place she was imagining before while she was jogging. Natsu looks toward it for a moment before turning back to her with a grin, leaning on her treadmill.

"Come on Lucy! I just wanted to stop by to wish you a happy birthday!" he replies with a chuckle.

Lucy lightens up from hearing that, breaking out into a smile herself. She had already forgotten about the irritation caused just moments ago. "Well thank you Natsu."

Natsu nods before holding onto his jaw, acting like he had a toothache and being a bit dramatic at it as well. "Ow! Oh! Hey Lucy, I think I got something caught in my teeth. It's been driving me nuts all morning. Think you can help me out please?"

Lucy gives a nod, grinning . "You've come to the right place then my friend! Dr. Lucy, DDS, is in the house and ready to assist. Have a seat on my sterilized examination table right here if you will." she motions to a portion of the pen fence that was a flat concrete surface which Natsu hops onto. She then starts to examine his mouth from the outside before opening it to look inside of it, but unable to find anything. "Hm, I don't see anything Natsu."

"It's on the left way in the back." Natsu speaks while his mouth is opened wide with Lucy sticking her head into it for a better look.

"Ah!" Lucy pulls her head back out and wipes her face clean of Natsu's saliva from when his tongue licked her during his speaking.

"Heh, Sorry." Natsu chuckles while Lucy just smiles back a him.

"Just don't talk with your mouth full okay? Now say 'ah'." she sticks her head back into his mouth and spots what she was looking for. "Aha! There it is!" she reaches in with her hand after removing her head and pulls out a snow globe with a red bow on top of it. "What the heck? What is this doing in there?" she asks with amusement.

"Happy Birthday Lucy!" Natsu stands up with open arms.

Lucy chuckles. "Thanks a lot! Wow, you managed to hid this behind your teeth? That's amazing! Heh, you're a good friend!"

"The best part is these aren't even on the shelf yet! Come on! Shake it and look inside! Look at it." Natsu tells her to do it though he's already grabbing the snow globe and shaking it for her. Lucy looks at it closely, seeing a mini New York city inside with a figurine of Natsu in the front of it in his signature pose, standing on a pedestal with his name on it in bold letters.

"Well would you look at that. It's really snowing." she moves it aside and sees Natsu in his signature pose on the fence.

"So you're finally 10 years old now aren't you. A whole decade! Double digits! The big 1-0!" He makes the number with his hands for better emphasis but takes notice of Lucy starting to look a bit down which concerns him. "Hey Lucy, what's wrong? You don't like the gift?"

Lucy immediately shakes her head, not wanting to make Natsu feel bad. "What? No, of course not, the gift is fine."

"Aw, you hate it! Darn it, I should've gotten the Natsu alarm clock! Those are the real big sellers." Natsu sighs, feeling disappointed as he rubs his head and sits back down.

"No no, the present is fine. I really do like it." Lucy reassures him while putting the snow globe in a pile of other souvenir items that all had Natsu on them. It was reasonable with him being the most popular animal in the zoo that a lot of the souvenir items featured him as the main icon.

"The thing is yet another year has come and gone and I'm still doing the same thing I've always been doing. Nothing's changed at all." Lucy explains herself while moving around in her pen. "Stand over here, jog over there, eat some of this grass, stand back over here again. It's always the same."

Natsu nods, understanding what Lucy was saying. "I see what you mean. You know what you need to do Lucy?"

"I'm thinking I should try going to law school, that sounds like a fulfilling career." Lucy looks deep in thought while responding to Natsu.

"No, all you need to do is break out of this same old routine you've been following all this time." Natsu gave his solution, standing back up on the fence.

"What? How am I supposed to do that?" Lucy seemed confused on the subject they're talking about.

"Drop your usual act. Do something no one would expect you to do. Make up up as you go along. Improvise, Be wild, Unpredictable!" Natsu danced around and went into many weird positions to prove that point.

"Really? That's what I should do?" Lucy asks.

"Of course." Natsu leaps down into Lucy's pen. "Be fresh!"

"Be fresh... I think I can try that." Lucy nods, smiling while finding it a reasonable idea.

"Good. It works me too." Natsu grins back.

Meanwhile at the front of the zoo the clock over the gate hits 9 A.M. at which a couple of mechanical monkeys start to whack the bell like a gong to signal the zoo is opening for the general public. It was now time for show to get started!

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**The first chapter will end at this point. One thing to bring up is that I planned for all the characters to be dressed up as what they represent while still being human, kind of like what you see in a play where the actors look human but wear pieces to mimic the animals they're being while still obviously being human. I also did edit the dialogue to make it a bit more original while remaining true to the actual script hence the differences. Thanks for taking the time to read this and the next chapter shall be up soon.**


	2. A Day at the Zoo

**Here is the second chapter that adds in more of the cast and some more of the storyline into it. The character picks should prove entertaining to anyone reading this fanfic so enjoy and thanks for taking the time to read this.**

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Upon hearing the bell Natsu grows excited, always happy whenever the zoo opens up for its visitors. "You hear that Lucy? The people are coming! Oh, I just love the people! It's time for people fun time! WHOO!" He dances around a bit and gives Lucy a good shake before leaping over the fence with his hands and lands on top of someone else floating face down in a pool of water in the nearby pen, still sleeping when he starts dancing on top of them and shouting at them.**  
**

"Come on Erza, wake up! The zoo's open and it's time for people fun time!"

The person Natsu is dancing on is a young woman named Erza who had long dark red hair and brown eyes, wearing a gray bodysuit with long sleeves and legs leaving her hands, feet, and head free. Adding onto that was a little bitty tail on the back end and some tiny ears on top of her head being that she was a hippopotamus or simply a 'hippo' as most people call them due to it being easier to say. She stirs and sticks head above water, yawning and still half asleep despite Natsu's attempt of waking her up.

"Huh... What day is it exactly?" she asks, rubbing her eyes.

"It's Friday Erza! Field Trip day so get up already!" Natsu leaps off of her and starts dancing around the edge of her pen that was solid.

Hearing that Erza seemed to get a bit more motivated as she raises a fist and smiles. "Field Trip day! Yes, let's get up and going... in ten more minutes..." she mutters as she sinks into her pool after falling back to sleep as she wasn't quite ready to get moving yet. Meanwhile, Natsu leaps and grabs onto a nearby lamp post and swings around it once before launching himself into another pen as he lands on the building within the pen.

"Come on, time to get up Gray! Gray, Gray, Gray, Gray! It's another great day in the Big Apple so get up before you miss it! Let's get going!" he shouts while dancing and beating on the building top to bring out the resident which works as there's a sound of a toilet flushing followed by a young man who was wearing a white cone around his head leaving the said building.

As mentioned the young man was named Gray would had black spiky hair and dark blue eyes. He was wearing yellow shorts with closely spaced random brown spots all over them, those same spreading all over his normal skin. With a long tail along with some long ears and horns he was seen as a giraffe by the general public. **((Gray here is going to be at his normal size despite being the giraffe. I've worked out how to make that work for the story.))**

"Natsu, today's not the day for me. I'm going to call in a sick day." he answers to Natsu as he looks at the roof of his building.

"What?" Natsu replies with a questioning look. "Again? What is it this time Gray?"

"Well, I just found a brown spot on my shoulder here. Look, it's right here! Do you see it?" Gray was pointing to one of his natural spots on his shoulder by the looks of it. Natsu just rolls his eyes, knowing Gray to have a history of health issues and always being paranoid when he thinks his health is at risk whether it's really in danger or not.

"Gray, I'll say this once more." He leans in close to Gray's face and grabs the cone to balance himself. "It's all in your head."

The front gates of the zoo open to the public and it's not long before a lot of people start walking through them to view the animals, the kids running ahead being the most eager. In one cage nearby a trash can lives two males resembling monkeys with brown vests and pants and having long tails. One was a man dark blue hair, black eyed named Macao who was just waking up and reaching into the nearby trash can to retrieve a coffee, a newspaper and a bagel before going back in to rejoin his partner who was still sleeping on a branch.

"Hey Wakaba, wake up you dirty monkey!" He shouts, slapping his brown-haired partner with the newpaper, causing him to stir and knock off a bunch of cans that were lying on top of him, grumbling while chewing on his pipe. Macao hands him the coffee while he keeps the bagel and newspaper for himself as Wakaba gurgles the coffee he was given after waking up. **((You can imagine them being about the size of the chimps here.))**

"Oh yeah, fresh is what I'm going to be. Completely fresh. Vegetable fresh. Ziploc fresh." Lucy was talking to herself while stretching in various ways, keeping in mind what Natsu told her to do just earlier. She was going to completely new today that was for sure. She takes a swig from a cup that was also themed around Natsu and washes it around her mouth before spitting it out. "Super fresh!"

"Ladies and Gentlemen, children of all ages," the announcement system starts up, signaling the beginning of the biggest event of the zoo. "The Central Park Zoo proudly presents..."

Meanwhile Natsu was getting worked up as he stayed hidden out of sight, readying himself for the very thing he enjoyed doing the most when people are visiting. "Let's show them the cat! Who's the cat? Who's the cat?" he chanted to himself, already hearing the people cheering for him before the show was even starting.

"The king of New York City..."

"NATSU THE LION!" Natsu says that at the same time as the speakers.

Lucy smiles. "It's showtime!" she gets ready to do her thing while Natsu gets on top of a high pedestal, stepping on a switch that makes a fan appear below him so that it looks like his mane was blowing. "RRRROOOOAAAARRRR!" he gives off his signature pose and roar as fireworks go off next to him, the large audience in front of him loving his entrance as always. He also proceeds to make various poses for those taking pictures of him.

"Alright everyone, gather around! Gather around!" Lucy calls out toward those near her that were given her some attention. "The shows about to start and this zebra is going to show you a good time!" she's already keeping their attention with some flips and handstands, especially from the kids watching. She they runs by her watering trough and gets a mouthful of water, swishing it around in her mouth a bit before squirting a shot of it into the air then moving into another position to catch it again much to the amazement of the crowd.

She then does two squirts of water at once followed by three and then four, doing rolls and flips to get into the positions that would catch the water and also amaze the audience. She finishes it all up by spraying out the water in her mouth at a group of adults who cringe from the spray but the children cheer after seeing that happen to their parents especially loud. Looks like she was fresh after all.!

While on his pedestal Natsu was waving his arms around so that he got different groups of the audience to do The Wave in the direction he was motioning it for which they were more then happy to follow. At Erza's tank the people watching her were amazed as she swim around gracefully, earning quite a few snapshots herself. As for Gray a lot of people were enjoying taking pictures of him in various medical positions such a walking with crutches, laying on an operating table and getting an MRI, needing the amount of medical attention he's receiving.

One visitor is focusing a video camera on a group of penguins standing on a platform in the middle of a large pool. All of them were wearing black and white tuxedos with orange shoes and black flippers on their hands since they're penguins after all. "Just smile and wave boys, smile and wave. That'll keep them plenty happy." says their leader who was an orange-haired, black-eyed man named Ichiya. He turns around to face the bowl of fish behind them. **((Imagine them having the same size as the penguins.))**

"Give me a status report Hibiki. Good news and Bad news." he says to the bowl.

The bowl moves aside, revealing a tunnel as a brown-haired, black-eyed young man pops out of it. "Good news is we're only 500 feet from the main sewer line." he explains.

Ichiya nods with a smile. "That is good news. And the bad news?"

Hibiki pulls out a plastic spoon that was broken into two pieces. "The bad news is we've broken our last shovel..." he explains again.

Ichiya frowns as he scratches his head. "Hm, that is bad news." He then turns to another of his men. "Ren, I'm assigning you to litter partol! I need you to fetch us more shovels and be sure to pick up more popsicle sticks while you're out. We don't want to risk having another cave-in incident." Ren, a young man with black hair and black eyes along with tan skin nods before diving gracefully into the water

"What do I do Ichiya?" asked Eve, the blond-haired and dark green-eyed member of the group. Ichiya just pats him on the shoulder with a smile. "I just want you to keep looking cute and cuddly Eve. For today we will bust out of this place." The two continue to wave at the people as Ren swims up to a kid and leaps out of the water, grabbing his plastic spoon with his mouth while the kid was pointing with it, leaving them confused as the cameraman captures it on film.

Back at Lucy's pen, Lucy was being fresh again by stick her hand in her armpit and making that farting sound you get when you flap the other arm up and down. "How do you like that? Bet you'll never see that on Animal Planet huh?" she giggles while the parents start leading their children away who were trying to copy Lucy's 'fresh' act.

"Well that's all for today, thanks for stopping by." she waves as the visitors start to clear out for the day. "Hope that was 'fresh' enough for you all. I'll be here all week. As a matter of fact I'll be here my entire life. All 365 days a year plus Halloween, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and any other holidays." she picks up her drinking cup and sucks from it. "Please never ever forget to spay or neuter your pets if you haven't and be sure to tip your cabbie because he doesn't have a dime!"

She tosses aside the empty cup and relaxes for a moment before spotting a plastic spoon dig itself upward from the ground, catching her curiosity. She stares as it as the four penguins from the other exhibit pop up, looking around in every direction while shaking to remove the dirt from their journey underground. Soon enough Ichiya notices her and addresses her. "You there, quadruped. You Sprechen Sie English?" he asks, causing Lucy to raise a brow.

"Yes, I Sprechen." she responds, wondering where this was going.

"Good, what Continent is this if you know?" Ichiya asks again.

"Manhattan." Lucy answered, wondering how they could not know that.

"Hoover Dam! We're still in New York! Abort Mission! Dive, Dive, Dive!" Ichiya shouts while getting his men to go back under while Lucy runs up to them, already too curious to ignore them and wanting to know what was going on here.

"Hey, hold it! You in the tux, get back here!" she yells while peeking into the hold and backing up as the penguins return to the surface. "What in the heck are you guys doing?" she asks as they return attention to her.

"We're digging to Antarctica of course. It's that simple." Eve answers, earning him a slap from Ichiya which makes him cry out while Lucy just looks confused.

"Anthootica?" she asks, clearly never hearing of that place before.

Ichiya and his men look around quickly to make sure no one else is around while Eve is busy rubbing his sore cheek. "Do you think you can keep a secret my monochromatic friend?" he asks, referring to Lucy once more by a trait of hers. Lucy looks around, also making sure the coast was clear before nodding and leaning in close to Ichiya to hear the secret.

Ichiya leans in to whisper to her. "Have you ever seen any penguins running freely around New York City? Any at all? Lucy shakes her head no. "Of course not. The reason is because we don't belong here. This isn't our natural environment thus we're not meant to be here. There's some crazy conspiracy at work here and we're breaking out of it." he backs up as he smiles big. "We're going to head toward the wide, open spaces of Antarctica. Heading to the Wild!" He and his men start high-fiving each other randomly and wildly.

"The Wild? You can actually go there? That... sounds perfect." Lucy asks, sounding happy and excited by the thought. Certainly this was the thing she was looking for and when she looks back at the hole though the penguins were gone again. "Hey! Come back here, you have to tell me how to get to the wild! Tell me where it is!"

She backs up when Ichiya pops his head up again. "You didn't see anything here..." he waves his arms before slowly descending the hole, only to pop back up again quickly. "Is that right?"

Lucy promptly salutes him. "Yes sir. Oh! I mean, no sir I didn't see anything." she corrects herself.

Ichiya nods before grabbing her empty cup and using it to plug up the hole as he drops back down it. Lucy is left there without any answers and a bunch of questions that she couldn't answer or explain really. While thinking she turns her head toward Natsu who was still doing his performance.

"For his final appearance of the day, the king of New york City, NATSU THE LION!" the speakers announce once more as Natsu once again roars while making his signature pose. By the entrance the bell is rung again, signaling closing time for the zoo.

"Thank you for coming everyone! Thank you! Thank you!" Natsu bows as he catches a bouquet thrown at him. "Ah, thank you! You're a great audience and you yourselves deserve a hand as well." He grins as he claps along with the audience but is cut off when some pair of underpants lands on his face. He removes it, looking embarrassed as it reads 'I love NY' "Oh wow... That's too kind really... heh..."

As the zoo employees lead the visitors out of the zoo Natsu quickly stretches the underpants and launches them to get them away from him. Gray was busy in his pen cleaning his nose when the same underpants land on his head. "Gah! Underpants!" he freaks out upon seeing the offending garment.

"Thanks for coming and get home safely!" Natsu waves as all the people leave until tomorrow. The day was now coming to an end and night was going to begin soon.

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**That ends the second chapter. A lot of the main cast has been established here and I hope my chosen picks for the roles were entertaining for those reading this. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I shall make the next chapter soon.  
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	3. The Birthday Wish

**Here is the third chapter which moves the storyline closer to the part where things get interesting. Starting in the next chapter onward the story will pick up and get much more humorous I promise. Thank you for taking the time to read this and do review if you will.**

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With the visiting hours over the zoo closes down as the night settles in, bringing in many good things for the residents of the zoo. While humming a specific the zoo employees were giving all the animals some good care while some chefs pushed in carts with silver trays and lids on them, each lid having a shape for the animal it belonged too. With this kind of care it was easy to see why they enjoyed being there.

Lucy was relaxing as an employee was grooming her feet while a chef pulls over a cart and removes the lid to show some high quality grass underneath.

"Ah, now this is the life..." Erza was relaxing on a table while an employee was giving her a thorough massage when a chef pulls up a cart for her and removes the lid to show an assortment of fruits on the plate.

"That's the spot..." Gray replies with a relaxed tone while an employee was giving him acupuncture as various needles were sticking out from all over. A chef brings a cart over and removes the lid to show a large amount of medication bottles on the plate. "Oh, now I'm in heaven!" Gray grins upon seeing the plate.

Natsu was sitting down and relaxing as four employees were blow-drying his mane. A chef comes up to him with a cart and removes the lid to reveal a stack of steaks for the best animal in the zoo. Natsu holds up his hands, signaling the employees to stop while he gets to work on his favorite meal.

Once all that is done and the employees have gone home, the four gather at the center of their pens, making use of the flat concrete surface surrounding the lamp post as a table for their own personal gathering for Lucy's birthday. At the moment Lucy was holding a neatly wrapped presently, shaking it to see if she could make out the noise. "What is it?" she kept asking.

"Lucy just open it already!" Natsu grins while he tells her to which she does and finds a thermometer in black foam inside of the box.

"Hey, a thermometer! Thanks Gray, I've been needing one." Lucy smiles while tossing it into the air and catching it in her mouth.

"I'm glad you're happy for it." Gray smiles while rubbing his head. "I thought I should give you something that was of personal value. That there happens to be my first rectal thermometer."

Lucy's eyes widen as she hears those last two words. "Son of a..." she mutters before turning to face away from the group and spits out the thermometer, sputtering and spitting constantly. Knowing Gray it was thoroughly cleaned but the thought of it being stuck up his butt before was really gross to her. She turns back to her friends when Gray blows on a party blower and Erza pulls out a cake while they all hum.

"Happy Birthday to you, You live in a zoo, You look like a monkey aaannnddd you smell like one too." The group laughs while Lucy giggles at the song they just sung.

Meanwhile Macao overhears the song and spits out the tea he was drinking. "What the heck?" he asks. Wakaba hears it too and sniffs his own armpit, falling off of his branch as he passes out from his own stink.

"Come on guys, you're just embarrassing me and yourselves when you sing so don't do it." Lucy replies with a laugh.

"Hey give us some credit, we spent the entire week working on it for you." Natsu responds with his own grin, picking up a steak from his plate as he lays on the fence.

"Alright now, it's time to make your wish Lucy." Erza holds out the birthday cake with a smile as a candle shaped like a 10 is lit on top of it.

Lucy thinks about it for a short bit before blowing out the candles and then sticking her face into the cake, pulling out a mouthful while also leaving a big mess on her face. It was her cake after all so she was allowed.

"Alright then, tell us what you wished for." Natsu asked, wanting to really know.

"Nope, I can't you it." Lucy responds with a shake of her head.

"Come on, tell us." Natsu insists.

"I just said I can't tell you. It's bad luck if I tell you my wish. Do you really want bad luck put on you? Well if you don't mind I suppose I could tell you but if only if you're really sure..."

"Lucy, will you just tell us the wish please." Erza tells Lucy after quickly growing tired of the delay. "Honestly, what could happen if you let us know?"

"Okay then..." Lucy looks to each of them, getting ready to tell the wish. "I wished... I could go... to the Wild!" she exclaims with excitement.

"The Wild!" Natsu shouts in shock and loses his balance as he falls off the fence, crying out in pain as he hits the ground. Gray inhales the party blower in his surprise and starts choking on it while Erza simply drops her jaw. Lucy takes in everyone's reactions and just shrugs.

"See, I just told you it would be bad luck." she replies, not finding a big deal.

Natsu pulls himself up and leans on the fence while Erza was helping Gray get the party blower out of his throat, beating on his back while he blew it with each gag as the sound was heard. "The Wild?" Natsu asks. "Lucy, are you crazy? That has got to be the worst idea I've ever heard!" He and Lucy pause to watch the party blower flying past them as Gray can be heard gasping for breathe.

"Yeah, it's unsanitary..." Gray coughs as he regains his breathe again while Natsu gets back to laying on top of the fence.

"Come on! The penguins are going to go there so how come I can't go?" Lucy asks, wanting a more valid reason for why she couldn't go.

"Lucy, those penguins are complete psychos." Natsu replies simply while picking up his steak.

"Come on, just think about it. Can't you imagine going back to nature where we belong?" Lucy reasons while looking back over to the mural she's always looking at it. "Think about it, going back to your roots, breathing clean air, running in wide opens spaces. doesn't all of that sound just wonderful?"

"Well, if it's wide open spaces you want I've heard they have some over in Connecticut." Erza brings up, catching Lucy's attention.

"Connecticut?" Lucy ponders on this.

"Yeah she right. What you got to do here is make your way over to Grand Central Station and when you get there you take the metro north train... north?" Gray adds on to Lucy's statement, making her more interested without realizing it.

"So hypothetically speaking if you wanted to go you could take the train?" she asks, showing interest in Gray's words.

However Natsu wasn't going for it and was completely against it. "Lucy, think about it for a minute. What could there possibly be for us in Connecticut?"

"Lyme disease for one." Gray answers the question.

"Yes, thanks for that fact Gray." Natsu nods with agreement.

"No, I really am just curious how..." Lucy starts to defend herself before Natsu interrupts her.

"Lucy, do you see this in my hand?" he shows her the steak he holding onto while standing up on the fence. "You'll never find any of this out in the wild! This here is a delicious, highly-refined food type... uh... thing that you'll never find in the wild." While explaining this Lucy keeps trying to cut in but isn't able to get in a word.

"Natsu, haven't you thought for once that there are more things to life besides steak?" she asks him once getting the chance.

However, the answer was an obvious no as Natsu starts to cradle the said steak. "Don't worry, she didn't mean any of that." he comforted it as if it could hear what Lucy just said. Things weren't looking good for Lucy's side of the matter.

"You mean to tell me that none of you are interested in going outside? Aren't you bothered by the fact that you know absolutely nothing about what goes on outside of this zoo? Aren't you even a little curious?"

The was a pause of silence before her friends answered her question with a round of 'no'. "Well, when you think about it, it's only one subject. It's not a big deal." Natsu explains, finalizing their side of the discussion. He starts to take a bite out of his steak but pauses for a moment. "Oh Lucy, you got a little something on your face." he points to a cheek, reminding her of the mess that been on her face this whole time before shoving the whole steak in his mouth.

Lucy brings up a handkerchief to her face and cleans it off, giving a bit of a disappointed look but managing a smile. "Well thanks for the party anyways. It was really great." Natsu finishes his steak and spits out the bone which he catches on his tongue as a trick but let it drop when he watches her leave. She walks off to her treadmill and starts walking on it at a slow pace while her friends just watch her, knowing something is wrong but not sure what to do right this moment.

"Hm, I wonder what could be bothering her." Gray thinks about that.

"Natsu, maybe you should try talking to her, that would help a lot." Erza tells Natsu who isn't that eager to agree.

"Talking to her? I already gave her a snow globe earlier today. That's the best I got!" he responds.

"Natsu, come on..."

"Well, I already see where this is going to go." Gray interrupts as he yawns and backs up into his pen. "It already is getting pretty late. I guess I'm going to just head to..." he falls asleep while standing in the middle of his pen, snoring loudly as he does.

With Gray out of the argument Erza and Natsu started exchanging body gestures to have a silent conversation. Erza was trying to convince Natsu to give Lucy the talk while Natsu was unwilling but the conversation ends with Erza making a threatening gesture to Natsu that leaves him unable to argue back. "Natsu, she's your best friend. Do it."

Natsu sighs as he nods. "Alright, alright, I'll see what I can do."

Erza nods, smiling as she made it through to him. "I'm going to sleep then. Goodnight Lucy."

"Goodnight Erza." Lucy answers without looking back.

Erza walks over to her pool and points to Natsu then to Lucy while looking at him sternly. She then crouches and does a back flip into her pool, creating a splash of water that flies in Natsu's direction. Natsu already knows this action and pulls out an umbrella to shield himself without looking. Erza's hand surfaces and repeats her last gesture twice more before sinking back in, the light in the pool turning off.

Natsu thinks about what he's going to say for a moment before laying down on the fence, smiling as if relaxed. "Well, this was such a great day. I tell you it really just doesn't get much better than it did today." he looks up into the night sky and catches something that makes him excited. "Hey, it just did. There's a star out tonight Lucy. There's no way you'll find a star like that if you're out in the Wild." Natsu motions to the star.

"Natsu, that's a helicopter." Lucy replies bluntly when she looks up, proving to be right as the star moves away and out of sight. Natsu sighs as he sits up and faces her.

"Lucy, everyone has those days where they think the grass is going to be greener elsewhere. It just happens and passes."

"Natsu, look at me for a moment." Lucy steps off her treadmill. "I'm already ten years old which means my life is half over. The worst of it is I still don't know if I'm black with white stripes or white with black stripes." she spins around as she tries to look at her backside before finally just sitting herself on the ground near Natsu, looking not so happy just like earlier.

Natsu thinks for a moment before develops a bigger grin. "Hey Lucy, you know what? I'm thinking of a song."

Lucy exhales, not in the mood. "Natsu, this isn't a good time."

"Oh yes, this is a good time. This is wonderful song that I know you're very familiar with." he starts making his fingers dance on the fence as he gets going. "Dah dah, dah dah dah! Dah dah, dah dah dah!"

Lucy didn't want to hear it now and was covering her ears in an attempt of ignorance. "Natsu, I'm not listening to you! La la la la la la!"

Natsu continues anyways as he starts singing the song. _**"Start spreading the news!"**_ he dances on the fence.

"No, I don't know you!" Lucy replies, still trying to ignore it all.

_**"I'm leaving today!"**_

"Heh, just who is it exactly." Lucy starts to lighten up with a small smile.

**_"We're all a great big part of it!"_** Natsu dances around the lamp post, kicking off the stuff by his feet before hanging from the lamp post by those feet, hanging upside down as he holds out his arms to Lucy. "Come on Lucy, I know you know the words. It's just two little words." he holds up a finger in each hand to make point of it.

Lucy shrugs and responds to him. "New York."

Natsu then jumps next to her and stands her up, the two standing side by side as they sing the next part loudly. **_"NEW YORK!"_**

"Will you shut the heck up out there! Just shut up!" cried a nearby residence as Lucy and Natsu turned to face another pen where a light had turned on. "We're not all nocturnal you know! So keep it down!"

"How about I come over there and knock your 'turnal' right out of you? Would you like that?" Lucy shouted back jokingly while jumping on top of the fence as her mood was much better now.

"Oh yeah! You and what army stripes? You and what army?" another resident responded. Soon enough other residents were waking up and complaining about the noise going.

"Hey, if you want to mess with her, you're going to have to mess with me too!" Natsu shouts back, jumping on the fence next to his friend in her defence. Soon enough the two were laughing once more and Natsu returns his attention to her. "So do you see that Ms. Stripes? You and I are a perfect team together."

"Yeah, there's no doubt about that, we are a great team." Lucy nods with agreement.

"So what were you going to do anyway? Run off to the Wild by yourself?"

"Nope, that's not it."

"Well, that's a relief."

"You and me are going together, just the two of us!"

"Wait, what?" Natsu was now confused again.

"Come on, you and me are going to the Wild, just the two of us out there!" she hugs him and points off in a direction before she jumps down from the fence and walks with excitement. "We just got to walk straight down Fifth Avenue to the Grand Central Station and take a train heading north. We can come back in the morning and no one has to know we're gone." she explains her plan with confidence but her smile falls when she hears Natsu laughing as he jumps to the ground and walks over to her.

"Lucy, you're just joking about this right?" he smiles while chuckling some more.

Lucy sighs, realizing by now there was no convincing anyone else about what she wanted to do and just smiles as she nods. "Yeah, I'm just kidding. Seriously Natsu, how are we even going to get on a train? We're not people."

Natsu nods in agreement. "Good to know. You had me scared for a bit there but it's good to see you're just playing around."

Lucy gives of a yawn as she starts walking to her bed. "Well, I'm getting tired now so I'm going to hit the sack."

"Yeah, I'm going to hit it too." Natsu jumps back onto the fence and walks alongside Lucy. "I've got to get my rest so that my voice is in top shape. We've got seniors visiting tomorrow so I'm going to have to roar extra loud for them. Just to give them an extra jolt if you know what I mean." he hops of the fence and back into his pen.

Lucy nods while laying down and getting comfortable on her bed of hay, surrounded by bales of it in a partially complete square. "Well, goodnight Natsu."

Natsu rolls under a raised rock and lays on his back. "Night Lucy." He claps his hands twice and the rock above him reveals a heat lamp that glows bright red, warming him as he relaxes. He starts to fall asleep but grumbles as the sounds of animals are heard coming from the speaker nearby. He sits up, glaring at the said object. "Darn it, they forgot to shut off the ambience again!"

"Don't worry about it, I got this." Lucy gets up from her bed and walks over to the base of the speaker where she does a handstand and kicks the base of the speaker with her back feet. The hard kick send vibrations that silence the speaker so that the sounds of the city can be heard.

Natsu grins as he relaxes once more. "Thanks, that's much better..." he yawns and rolls over, quickly drifting off into sleep.

Lucy watches him to make sure he's asleep before walking over to the end of her pen and leaning on it as she stares at the mural she's always looking at. With the zoo fast asleep she's left alone with her thoughts about her birthday wish. If she was ever going to get to go to the Wild she was going to have to do it on her own time. It was time for her to choose between staying at the zoo or leaving for the Wild.

* * *

**Thus the third chapter ends and I'm further into the story. Things will get really interesting once the next chapter starts now that the slower part is finished. A lot of the roles have been established except for the lemurs which will be a special surprise when they come up. Believe me when I say you're going to enjoy who I selected for the role as the leader of the lemurs. I have a good idea of who should be playing that role. Thank you for taking the time to read this story and be sure to keeping on reading.  
**


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